War in Iran causing biggest energy crisis in history, IEA says

The conflict between Iran and the US and Israel is creating the ​worst energy crisis ever faced by the ‌world, Head of the International Energy Agency (IEA) Fatih Birol said on Tuesday.

"This is indeed the biggest crisis ​in history," Birol told France Inter ​radio in an interview broadcast on Tuesday.

"The ⁠crisis is already huge, if you combine ​the effects of the petrol crisis and the ​gas crisis with Russia," he added.

The war in the Middle East has choked up maritime traffic in ​the Strait of Hormuz, which is a ​conduit for a fifth of global oil and liquefied ‌natural ⁠gas flows.

It has also come on top of the effects of Russia's war with Ukraine, which had already severed Russian gas supplies to ​Europe.

Birol had ​said earlier ⁠this month that he viewed the current situation in global energy ​markets as worse than previous crises in ​1973, ⁠1979, and 2022 combined.

In March, the IEA agreed to release a record 400 million barrels of ⁠oil ​from strategic stockpiles to ​combat rising oil prices caused by the US-Israeli war with ​Iran.